Video – Spring Flowers Watercolour

Today I have a video (see below) watercolouring the Spring Flowers set from Simon Says Stamp with the no line colouring technique. This is one of my favourite ways to watercolour flowers as you don’t get any strong lines visible to deter from the delicate blooms. I paired the Spring Flowers set with a sentiment from the Handlettered Encouragement set. I’ve linked all supplies at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links used.

I started with a long rectangle of Arches cold pressed watercolour card in the Misti and lined up the images from the Spring Flowers set, stamping them in Antique Linen Distress Ink. This ink being light in colour and highly water reactive becomes invisible once painted. I continued stamping the various images from the set along the long edge of the watercolour card until I’d completely filled the space with blooms and leaves.

Then it was on to the painting and I have a new tube of watercolour paint that I’m really enjoying at the moment, it is the gorgeous Rose Of Ultramarinefrom Daniel Smith (a purple hue in which the blue settles and the rose lifts to give an interesting two-tone effect from one paint). I added the paint to my palette and used a little water to get a paintable consistency and then started painting at the base of the crocus where the deepest most intense colour would be. I rinsed my brush and used the water to spread the colour up the petal to give a graduation of colour. I used the same technique over the other flowers and foliage.

I must admit that I struggled rather with the daisy shaped flowers. Somehow I couldn’t get the look I wanted. However, I kept working at it, adding deeper shades to define the petals and then blending out with water to give soft lines and eventually I was happier with how they looked. Once the panel was dry I put it back in the Misti to stamp the sentiment from the Handlettered Encouragement set in Versafine Onyx Black ink. I stamped it a couple of times and then went over any areas which hadn’t stamped perfectly with a black marker.

I used Faber Castell pencils to add some shading and details and in the video I take a quick look at the T’Gaal pencil sharpener I’m using currently as I’ve had a few questions. It has a dial which can adjust the length of the pencil sharpened from a short point to a long point. I prefer my pencil leads short and sharp as I feel there’s less chance of breaking and so I use the sharpener with the number 1 setting.

For the card base I took a full piece of Neenah Desert Storm card and scored it along the long side at 4 and a quarter inches. I reinforced the score line with a bone folder and then trimmed it to fit the watercolored panel. I added foam adhesive to the back of the panel and then added it to the card base. I wanted to add just a little embellishment to the card and so I pulled out my selection of sequins and picked out a few colours which went well and then attached them with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.

VIDEO

BLOG BREAK

I’m travelling to meet up with crafty friends for a few days later this week and so I’m going to take a little blog break to enjoy my time away. Hopefully I’ll get some cards made to share with you on my return but in reality I spend more time chatting and laughing until my tummy hurts at these events! I’ll be back soon.

SUPPLIES

You can find links to the supplies I’ve used below; click on the picture or wording to get taken directly to the product. Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. You can read my affiliate and product disclosure here. I truly appreciate your support.

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43 Comments

Debby, As always, I have enjoyed watching you work via this video. This card in it’s layout is so refreshing. I am amazed at how well you can control the colors when using the no-line technique. That is compared to heat embossing a stamped image so as to create little walls to help contain the water and colors. Thanks for taking the time and effort to educate us with this video.

Daria
on April 10, 2017 at 4:39 pm

Your card is lovely, and I appreciate all the tips and details you gave in your video. Thank you.

Bette
on April 11, 2017 at 1:30 am

Stunning coloring with watercolor and colored pencil. A true work of detailed art!